Through the fire
by Kironomi
Summary: "Baby you're a firework". Pre "A Very Glee Christmas". Kurt learns just how the Dalton boys are truly like.


Through the fire

Kurt shivered as the storm outside the windows grew stronger. He rubbed his hands together and breathed on them, yet they seemed to be as cold as before. He tugged on the Dalton jacket and wished, for a moment, that it was his Marc Jacobs coat. No luck there.

Glancing quickly at the centre of the room, he watched as the Warblers and some other students laughed, talked and, well, mingled; all that that he was far from doing since he had transferred this school. He let out a soft sigh and stared again out of the window. Since the common room was located in the bottom floor, he could clearly see the playing grounds and the school gates invaded by the darkness. The rain poured down; it had been that way the whole day and that was something that was annoying him endlessly. He couldn't stand the rain and, right now, he couldn't stand school.

Kurt shifted slightly towards the window, taking the cold breeze that seeped through the fringes with no resistance. He didn't feel like he belonged there around the fireplace, with all that warmth that he wasn't allowed to share. Resting his hand in the window sill, he let his eyes trail the path of the water droplets in the glass, pointedly ignoring all the noise behind him.

That is why when he turned around with all his oblivious self to see Blaine with his eyes trained on him, he sort of shrieked.

"Hey, hey! No need for that!" Blaine exclaimed, looking past Kurt at the window "Is my hair really that bad?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows and squinting his eyes.

"No, no. "He hurriedly said, settling against the armchair "Your hair looks amazing. You just sort of scared me."

"Yeah, sorry for that" Blaine said, sitting in the arm of the chair "And for being late. Whenever my mother calls me, it's..." he trailed off, looking momentarily speechless and then making a gesture with his hand that had Kurt laugh "Well, you know how parents are. Has you father called you?"

"Yes, twice today actually. He asked me how I was doing, if the food was any good and how the boys were treating me. He also said the distance from Lima to Dalton wasn't that big to cover if pummelling was required. "

"And what did you tell him?" Blaine asked.

"Well, the food is certainly healthy!" he commented "I can't help but think that Mercedes would make an even bigger protest if she were, by any chance, to eat here. And these red hems?" he tugged on said atrocities "I believe these weren't made to actually match these pants." Kurt concluded, looking at Blaine, who had his eyebrows raised comically high.

"Any more suggestions?" he asked, voice condemning but lips tilted upwards.

Kurt shrugged "No, none."

Blaine smirked "What I meant to ask was; how _are _you doing?" he asked, laying his hands on top of Kurt's in the spur of the moment. The younger boy's heart leaped very suddenly as it had the first time Blaine had taken his hand to lead him to that very room. Jeez, what was it with Blaine and holding hands? Not that he minded. "How are you fitting here?"

"Well, I think." He answered, and Blaine slid his palm ever slightly. His eyes, however, kept themselves so fixed on Kurt's that he was forced to avert his look to think properly.

"Really?" Blaine's voice came.

"No, not so much."

It had been over two weeks since he had transferred Dalton. Sectionals were over and they had won, even if it had been a tie. There was the feeling of being left out and ignored. As Blaine had said, it was normal. He was, he thought, a bit too attached to his old friends and school. But this was different; he felt like he was exploring a whole new world and the only anchor he had was Blaine. His only bridge to happiness and normality.

Blaine sighed slightly.

"You have to make an effort yourself, you know?"

"You said it yourself; I try too hard." Kurt admitted bitterly, and slowly slid his hands from under Blaine's. This time he stared hard at him.

"I didn't mean that." Blaine said "I meant, try to actually talk to them. They are great guys, but you're only going to notice it once you peek inside that hard shell they have built."

Kurt almost rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Blaine. I can't just say 'Hey, I'm Kurt. Want to be my friend?' We're not on Facebook!"

"True." Blaine admitted, laughing lightly "But since when do you have trouble talking to someone new? You had no problem regarding me."

"I had no problems with you because you pretty much understand every reference I make and we actually speak the same language. They? I'm still not over the embarrassment of the miner joke."

Blaine laughed again and Kurt wondered if the older boy spoke to him just to laugh at his tribulations.

"Don't laugh! I am in serious depression mode right now!" he complained, and crossed his arms.

"Aw, poor Kurt! Such a drama queen!" Blaine mocked, making a pouty face and ruffling Kurt's head.

"Hey, don't ruin my hair!" he protested, swatting Blaine's hand aside and proceeding to check his reflection on the mirrored surface of a table. Unhappy with the state of his delicate locks, he got up and proceeded to fix them, looking at Blaine through the corner of his eye. He wondered why every conversation with him started off as serious and very intimate and finished with an arabesque of playful teasing.

"I like it messy" Blaine confessed, making Kurt smirk to prevent his cheeks from heating up.

"Right..." Kurt began and left it at that. His eyes wandered again towards the surface as he tried to arrange his locks some more. Blaine's reflexion was grinning and fixed on himself and Kurt found himself ask "What?" His question hanged in the walls for a bit and Kurt didn't remember the room being so silent.

"I think it is time you met the real Warblers." Blaine's reflection said.

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows, finally releasing a strand of hair that had came knotted with Blaine's ruffling. "Real warblers? What do you-"

He lifted his eyes from the mirror and suddenly he had never seen so many teenager boys surrounding him. Nor had he ever been the target of such fierce tackling.

He shrieked for the second time that night as he was lifted up the floor by a couple-no, several pairs of arms.

"Grab his legs!" a voice said beneath him that he recognized as Wes's. Kurt tried to hold on to something to find balance but gave up as he realized he couldn't fall off that mob.

"Don't grope him!" Blaine warned from somewhere behind the mess and someone snickered "I'm serious, guys!" And suddenly Kurt was sliding and being dropped off on one of the bigger sofas. There was a flurry of movements, commotion even bigger than before, as he tried to regain full awareness of the situation and Kurt found himself flanked by the greater part-if not all of them- of the Warblers. He looked around and took in excited, grinning faces with eyes menacingly trained on him. Wes took his place in front of the sofa and cleared his throat before Kurt had the chance to ask anything.

"I, as representative of the warblers, open-"

"Oh, for god's sake!" exclaimed David to Kurt's left "This is not a school reunion, can't we just skip the official details?" he concluded, getting cheered on by most attendants. Wes narrowed his eyes.

"I was trying to keep our meeting as in order as-"

David cut him off again.

"Right, great way to keep our newest addition interested: boring him to death with bureaucracy!"

Wes huffed, sat down and crossed his arms.

"What is happening?" Kurt asked, his stomach still a bit twisted from being thrown around. And he already had enough of that and the cryptic messages.

"We know you've been sad and overly depressed since you enrolled here..." Blaine said, appearing from behind the sofa "Part of it is our fault, actually. We should have paid a bit more of attention to you, even if the sectionals were close." He turned towards Kurt and his smile was clear "So we thought we'd show you what true Warbler camaraderie is about, after such a rough start."

"And by 'camaraderie' he means singing you girl song." David informed, getting up. Kurt frowned. They were singing him a song?

"It is _not_ a girl song!" Blaine protested.

"Only girls swoon over it."

Blaine looked again at Kurt. "Well, we'll let you decide.

Kurt watched with silent bewilderment as the Warblers rounded up in front of him, between the couch and the fireplace. Even Wes had given up on sulking. Blaine took his usual spot at the front and smiled brilliantly at him.

"Sorry for the embarrassment, Kurt" the younger teen sort of giggled "but this one is for you."

Blaine looked at the boys behind him and they nodded. Then, the melody began. He didn't recognize it at first, but of course it had to be Katy Perry. It had "Blaine" written all over it.

"_Do you ever feel like a plastic bag  
Drifting through the wind  
Wanting to start again?"_

Blaine made the wind motion with his hand, a questioning look stamped on his face. He was already fully committed to the song, as one would expect from a true fan. Kurt swallowed dry.

"_Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin  
Like a house of cards  
One blow from caving in"_

Had he shown himself so fragile? He thought he had put his best game face on. It had worked at McKinley's. He was sure it should have worked here. But then, how come Blaine had guessed how he was feeling? Maybe...Maybe the older boy knew him already too well.

"_Do you ever feel already buried deep  
Six feet under scream  
But no one seems to hear a thing"_

Kurt was feeling divided between enjoying all that work The Warblers-especially Blaine, if he would have to guess-had gone through to adapt the song and thinking that they had seen straight through his "I'm super happy but a bit of a goof!" charade.

"_Do you know that there's still a chance for you  
Cause there's a spark in you_

_You just gotta ignite the light  
And let it shine  
Just own the night  
Like the Fourth of July"_

His conflicted feelings were, however, dissipated with the crescendo of Blaine's voice. Blaine's smooth, melodious voice melded with that hopeful, encouraging tone that made butterflies twirl in his belly like he was singing "Teenage Dream" all over again. He readied himself for the chorus.

"_Cause baby you're a firework  
Come on show 'em what you're worth  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
As you shoot across the sky-y-y_

_Baby you're a firework  
Come on let your colors burst  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
You're gonna leave 'em fallin' down-own-own"_

Blaine was electric; he could the feel the energy fizzling from the older boy. His mouth had broken in a smile and his eyes never left Kurt's. If he had had any doubts regarding who the song was directed to, he no longer did. All those boys' attention was fixed on him. Kurt started blushing as the chorus neared its end.

"_You don't have to feel like a waste of space  
You're original, cannot be replaced  
If you only knew what the future holds  
After a hurricane comes a rainbow"_

At that verse, Blaine neared Kurt. He bent over him, taking his delicate hands on his. Kurt averted his gaze because of Blaine's intense one. His cheeks were burning at that point.

"_Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed"_

But of course Blaine wouldn't have any of it, even when he knew his voice resonated deep in Kurt's heart, almost too deep to bear. He slid one of his hands under Kurt's chin and tilted it up. The younger teen felt like he would combust. Kurt briefly considered all that the Dalton boys were doing, putting up a show to him, the new kid. They actually looked like they cared if he was happy in his skin in that new school where everything was oh so different. Looking at their faces, he could tell they were happily singing the song, not like Blaine had forced them to do it.  
_"So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road  
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow  
And when it's time, you'll know"_

Maybe Blaine was right. Maybe he really needed to give them a chance.

"_You just gotta ignite the light_

_And let it shine"_

Blaine's thumb softly caressed his cheek, sliding down to his lips for a moment, as he held a longer note. Something flickered in his eyes that make Kurt wonder, for a second, if the movement was intended or not. But the moment passed and Blaine was already backing away to the rest of The Warblers, leaving Kurt with a sensation...that was hard to explain, really. He only knew that he felt irrationally happy for a reason he could not even process.  
_"Just own the night  
Like the Fourth of July"_

At this Blaine opened his arms, embarking the whole room. Kurt should have found it rather silly, reminiscing the "Don't!" gesture Blaine had done when he had sung "Don't cry for me Argentina", but it actually came off as endearing.

"_Cause baby you're a firework  
Come on show 'em what your worth  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
As you shoot across the sky-y-y_

_Baby you're a firework  
Come on let your colors burst  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
You're gonna leave 'em fallin' down-own-own"_

Really, they were brilliant. They had been brilliant at sectionals. Once he could bring himself to say "we were brilliant" or "we are brilliant"...well, maybe he could then accept that he could shine as well on a new school. If anything was shown through the performance, was how ready they were to accept him. And he was glad.

"_Boom, boom, boom"_

At this, Blaine actually had the nerve to fake-shoot him those three times. Behind him, Wes and David simultaneously rolled their eyes and Kurt snorted. He could already guess the discussions at the rehearsal: Blaine would have defended that it was a cool thing to mimic; Wes would have surely said it was lame.  
_"Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon  
It's always been inside of you, you, you  
And now it's time to let it through"_

Kurt couldn't help but be startled when Blaine pointed a finger at him. It somehow remembered him of the times Rachel had sung with Finn and how they kept directing the song to each other, by pointing fingers and leaning towards each other, which was what Blaine was doing right now.

"_Cause baby you're a firework  
Come on show 'em what you're worth  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
As you shoot across the sky-y-y"_

Kurt laughed when all the Warblers (yes, even the evil eye-rollers Wes and David) mimicked the motion of shooting to the sky. Oh, this was too amazing. The things they subjected themselves to under Blaine's direction.

"_Baby you're a firework  
Come on let your colors burst  
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"  
You're gonna leave 'em goin "Oh, oh, oh!"_

_Boom, boom, boom  
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon  
Boom, boom, boom  
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon"_

They finished and Kurt applauded, getting up and giving them their worthy standing ovation. Most of them looked sheepishly at him, between not believing that they had dedicated a song to a guy and gaining a bit of their breath. Blaine stood there in the centre, unaltered, like he had just given an effortless twirl.

"So?" he asked, hands at his sides, grinning at him and nearing Kurt inquisitively "What do you think?"

Kurt laughed and, in a sudden divine impulse, literally threw himself at Blaine, putting his arms around his neck.

"Thank you very much for this." He said into his shoulder, and if he was a bit teary...Well, the fireplace light was a bit too bright.

"Hey!" protested David behind Blaine "I was the one that made the adaptation, you know?"

Kurt smirked and loosed his hold on Blaine a few inches.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I should be being thanked as well, don't you think?"

Blaine intervened "Oh, he's right Kurt. You should thank him too."

Kurt made a pouty face that had half of the warblers laughing "Do you want a hug too?"

"What-no!"

"I think he wants a hug." said Wes.

"No I don't."

"I'll give him a hug, then."

"N-" David started saying, but found himself with an armful of Kurt. Kurt gripped at David's waist like a snake, making good use of his short height compared to the older teen's.

Laughing roared in the living room.

"Kurt, stop. I really have personal space issues." David protested, very serious and very red, tugging at the shorter boy.

"Oh, but I really want to thank you!"

"You can thank me by doing my French homework."

"No, I like it here." Kurt insisted as Nick and Jeff cat-whistled.

"Blaine, can you please ask your boyfriend to stop _hugging _me? He's making me really uncomfortable."

Blaine seemed to overlook the boyfriend comment for he said next "To make it even, I think Kurt should hug everyone."

Mayhem ensued.


End file.
